Skirting The Minimum Wage

As the minimum wage debate gains attention in DC, Spencer Woodman shines a spotlight on spending cuts to the agencies responsible for enforcing minimum wage laws:

Budget cuts are no surprise in an era of austerity. Yet the effect of these cuts on wage-and-hour investigative units—charged with examining and settling wage disputes—has seriously compromised an essential line of defense for already vulnerable low-wage earners, according to experts. State labor officials and researchers around the country tell In These Times that low-wage workers facing abusive employers increasingly have nowhere to turn.

According to the National Employment Law Project’s Catherine Ruckelshaus, “It’s to the point where, in some industries, there’s no minimum wage floor at all.” Previous Dish on the minimum wage debate here, here and here. Discussion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, a potential alternative to raising the minimum wage, here, here and here.